Ok, so i know this has probably been done before and Wizards has their own Jack of all Trades-esqu classes, but what the hell. I've had this lying around for some time now and thought i might throw it at you people to see what you think. So, here goes nothing!

The Jack of All Trades

{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Good Save*|Bad Saves*|
Special|Trade of the Day Uses

A Jack of All Trades is the ultimate Multiclasser without ever needing to multiclass. He perpetually alters his skill set to fit the day at hand and can draw upon his knowledge to emulate a class feature when the need arises. As he grows, his skills spread out over a diverse selection and brig together the culmination of years of dabbling. Indeed the Jack of All Trades is a swiss army knife when he needs to be, always having the right tools for the job.
His abilities put even the most talented Rogues in awe and leave the most intelligent spell casters scratching their heads. How can one man do so much? Such is the talent of the Jack of All Trades. However, his dabbling is surpassed by the truly dedicated to their craft. As such, a Jack of All Trades will likely never be as strong as the strongest fighter, nor as powerful as the wisest wizard, nor even as skilled as the most talented rogues.
But this is fine for the Jack of All Trades, let those who specialize, specialize. The Jack of All Trades will be there for them when they need something to be done that they can't do.

Relations with other classes and Alignment:
The Jack of All Trades has little to no problem with any class at all. In fact, the more different kinds of people around him, the better. The Jack of All Trades does tend to associate more with Rogues and Bards, seeing their ability to to spread their skills about similar to his own. And while the Jack of All Trades doesn't have any hard feelings towards them, the Monk and Paladin put him off just slightly if only for their narrow minded dedication to their singular studies and ideals. He sees them a bit of a challenge and getting them to admit that diversifying and trying new things can be good will make his day, any day.
The Jack of All Trades is generally good to get along with and boisterous, often verging on bothersome or annoying in his continual bragging about his skills, especially to the studious wizard or meditative monk.
The Jack of All Trades can be found among every race of every alignment. All cultures and creeds have need of the handyman they can call to get the job done for cheap and the Jack of All Trades fits the bill.
All in all however, the Jack of All Trades tend towards true Neutrality being a class that offers their skills out as a service. That doesn't mean, however, that the Jack of All Trades can't dedicate himself to a life of crime with his skills or use them to bring justice. Indeed, the Jack of All Trades' uses for his skills are about as endless as his skills themselves.

Stats
The Jack of All Trades treats all skills as class skills.
Hit dice: d8
1st lvl: (6+Int)x4
lvl up: 6+Int
Save Progression: Upon taking the first level of Jack of All trades, chose one save (Fort, Reflex, or Will). This save has "Good" progression while the other two have "Bad" progression.
BAB: As a Cleric of the same level.

Starting Gold:
5d4x10

Proficiency
A Jack of All Trades is naturally proficient with all Simple Weapons as well as all light armor and shields (not including tower shields)

Skill Focus: Profession
At First Level, A Jack of All Trades gains the Skill Focus: Profession (Jack of All Trades) feat.

Trades of the Day
At the start of each new day, the Jack of All Trades must decide what skill sets he's going to focus on for the day. At every odd numbered level, the Jack of All Trades may act as though he has a level in any one base class and gain the special abilities of the level of the selected class.
He may use his Trades of The Day ability on different classes or all in the same class. This ability may never bring a single classes above his effective character level. He must still meet the ability score requirements of any of that classes special abilities (Such as a sorcerer's Charisma based spells or a Cleric's Wisdom based Spells).
A Jack of All Trades need not meet any Alignment Based Requirements for any Trades of the Day Selected. So at first level, the Jack of All Trades gains the abilities lvl 1 abilities of one class of his choice for one day. At 3rd level he gains either the 1st and 2nd level abilities one class or 1st level abilities of two classes and so forth. The Jack of All Trades gains the proficiencies granted by the selected class or classes if he does not already have those proficiencies until the end of the day.

Should the Jack of All Trades select a Spellcasting Class, he must both meet the Ability score requirements to cast spells from the class and decide on his prepared spells for the day at the same time. A Jack of All Trades does not by default know any spells whatsoever. However, he can prepare any spell that any member of his party knows even if the spell would not normally be on the selected spell casting classes list of spells. If there are no spell casters in the party, the Jack of All Trades must rely on scrolls to prepare his spells. Using scrolls in this way does not use the spell contained within, but the Jack of All Trades must still know what spell is written on the scroll. A Jack of All Trades who selects a Spontaneous casting class may memorize up to the maximum amount of spells known for the selected class and then spontaneously cast any of those spells up to the maximum number of spells per day for that spell level. A Jack of All Trades who selects Cleric as a Class must select two domains as well. He gains all the benefits from those domains and can prepare one spell per spell level as per usual. He need not Worship the deity nor meet any alignment restrictions to select this feat. He must decided if he will rebuke or turn undead as well as have a holy symbol to do so with. A Jack of All Trades who selects an Arcane spellcasting class suffers from Arcane Spell Failure just like any other Arcane spellcaster.

Should a Jack of All Trades select a class that grants a bonus feat, he must select that feat immediately and meet the prerequisites for it unless otherwise specified by the class that grants the bonus feat. He has this feat until the end of the day and can benefit from it just like a member of the class could.
For example, a Jack of All Trades who selects the Fighter and Wizard class gains both a Fighter Bonus Feat, Scribe Scroll and Summon Familiar. While the Jack of All Trades does not actually gain a familiar, he still benefits from the feat as though he had a Familiar, gaining the Alertness feat as well as one selected familiar ability to benefit from. Likewise, the Jack of All Trades can scribe a Scroll with any spell he prepared that day. (He must still pay the XP and material component costs). Similarly, the Jack of All Trades selects a fighter bonus feat to benefit from for the remainder of the day. He must meet the prerequisites of the feat to be used in order to select it.

A Jack of All Trades may select a Prestige class with his Trades of the Day class feature only if he meets all requirements for it (including alignment) with his combined natural feats from level ups and temporary abilities from his Trades of the Day ability and only if he is lvl 6 or greater.

Example on a level by level basis. A first Level Jack of All Trades begins the day and decides that he wants to function as Paladin for the day. He gains all the benefits of a first level Paladin until the start of the next day.
Now, the same Jack of All Trades is level 3. Today he decides that he wants to do a bit of spell casting while still having some battle power. So he decides to be a Sorcerer and Fighter. He gains a fighter bonus feat which he must meet the prerequisites for as well as Summon Familiar. He also can cast spells as a first level sorcerer should he have scrolls or spell casting members of the party.
Finally, the same Jack of All Trades is level 5. He's done a lot in his day but today he's gonna have some fun. He decided to focus a little more than usual and select only two classes, the Monk and the Barbarian, keeping most of his focus in the monk. The Jack of All Trades decides to use two of his Trades of The Day in Monk and one in Barbarian. He now acts as a Monk of 2 levels and a Barbarian of 1st level and gains all the special abilities of theses classes at their respective levels. He must still decided which monk bonus feats to use and will need to remove his armor, if any, to use the monk special abilities, but the Jack of All Trades need not meet any of the alignment requirements associated with either class to gain and use the benefits from them for the day.

Class Emulation
The bread and butter of the Jack of All Trades class, this ability allows the Jack of all trades to effectively be what ever he needs to be for a short amount of time.
The Jack of All Trades may, as a swift action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity, roll a Profession: (Jack of All Trades) check to attempt to emulate any one special ability from any class for a number of rounds equal to his Jack of All Trades class level. The DC of this check is 20+ the class level the emulated special ability is gained at. (So a Monk's Flurry of Blows special ability is DC 21 while a Monk's Greater Flurry is DC 31.) A Jack of All Trades need still meet the requirements to use the selected ability so long as it is not alignment based.
An emulated class feature lasts only for a number of rounds equal to the Jack of All Trades' class level. Even if a feature such as a Barbarian's Rage power lasts longer than the number of rounds allotted, once the number of rounds has passed, the effects of the power end and the Jack of All Trades takes any penalties that ending the power would normally provoke.
The Jack of All Trades may only emulate one class ability at a time and may end emulating it as a mental swift action at any time during the Emulation.
A Jack of All Trades may not emulate the abilities of any prestige class unless he meets all the requirements for that prestige class at the time of emulation, including alignment if any as a prestige class is highly specialized and a Jack of All Trades, by nature, is not. In addition, the DC of this check is 30+ the class level the ability is acquired at.
A Jack of All Trades may never emulate an ability that is above his Jack of All Trades level.
A Jack of All Trades receives a circumstance bonus equal to the number of class levels he selected at the beginning of the day to emulate features later in that level. For example a level 3 Jack of All Trades who used his Trades of the Day ability to select Monk and Druid receives a +1 circumstance bonus to emulate later features of those classes while a Jack of All Trades who used his Trades of the Day ability to select two levels of Ranger receives a +2 circumstance bonus to emulate features of the class.
In addition to these bonuses, at 4th level and every 4 levels there after, the Jack of All Trades receives a +2 competence bonus on checks made to emulate any class feature. So at level 4, he receives a +2 bonus, at lvl 8 he receives a +4 bonus, at lvl 12 he receives a +6 bonus and so on.

Improvised Magic
Because the Jack of All Trades often tampers around with various things that he may or may not know the nature of, he is treated as having a caster level equal to half his Jack of All trades level rounded down (minimum 1). This caster level stacks with caster levels gained by way of multiclassing to a casting class regardless of weather it is arcane or divine. As such, a Druid1/Wizard1/JoAT2 would have a base wizard caster level of 2 and a base druid caster level of 2. Likewise a Sorcerer1/Wizard2/Druid3/JoAT4 Would have have a base caster level of 3, 4, and 5 respectively in each class. These extra caster levels do not grant extra spells per day or learned spells and can not cause the caster level of any class to exceed the Jack of All Trades Character Level.
These Caster Levels allow the Jack of All Trades to qualify for feats that require a caster level (Such as Craft Wondrous Items), even if he does not actually possess any spell casting classes whatsoever.

Dabble
At every even numbered level, the Jack of All Trades selects one base class. He is forever treated as having all special abilities of the lowest level of the class selected and permanently benefits from any proficiencies the class offers that the Jack of All Trades does not already have. He does not gain the base attack bonus or saves associated with taking a level in that class. He need not meet any alignment based requirements for the classes, if any. The Jack of all Trades may chose to Dabble in the same class every two levels if he so wishes.
If the Jack of All Trades choses a spell casting class, he may immediately learn new spells for the class and gains a caster level in the chosen class. this caster level stack with the caster level granted by his Improvised Magic ability as well as any other caster levels gained by taking actual levels in the same class. He must have a Spell Book ready if choosing to Dabble in the Wizard Class or otherwise have parchment ready to scribble spells onto to be transferred to a spell book later.
Once this decision has been made, it can not be changed.
The Jack of All Trades no longer needs to emulate the class features of the level of the class he has Dabbled in. In addition, every time the Jack of All Trades Dabbles, he receives a +1 competence bonus on all his Class Emulation checks for the chosen class's higher abilities. These bonuses stack with each other and the Bonuses provided by the Favored Trade ability.
When using his Trades of the Day ability, should he select the class he dabbled in, he starts at the next highest level (Lvl 2 after the first dabble, Lvl 3 should he dabble in the same class again at lvl 5). Should a Jack of All Trades already have a level in the selected class or have previously Dabbled in the selected class, he gains the next highest level of that class's special abilities. (A Fighter1/Jack of All Trades 2 who Dabbles in Fighter for Jack of All Trades lvl 2 gains the lvl2 fighter bonus feat permanently and receives a perpetual +1 competence bonus to emulate class features in the fighter class. Likewise, a Jack of All Trades lvl 4 who Dabbled once in Sorcerer at lvl2 and Dabbles once more at lvl 4 gains new spells known and spells per day as well as a +2 competence bonus to emulate class features of the sorcerer.)
All decisions that are made with taking the first level of a class that are normally made at first level, must be made at this time (Such as a Wizard's decision to specialize in a school of magic or whether a Neutral cleric will turn or rebuke dead.)
This ability my not be used to select a prestige class, even if the Jack of All Trades meets all the requirements.

Multitalented
At 3rd level, the Jack of All Trades becomes confident enough in his skills at everything to use his brains over his brawn... or anything really.
At the beginning of the day, before doing anything you would normally do at the beginning of the the day, choose one ability score. For the remainder of the day until you fall asleep that night, You use your Intelligence score and modifier in place of the selected score for all purposes. (This includes skill modifiers, ability prerequisites for determining qualification for feats, HP adjustments, bonus to hit, damage, save modifiers, AC adjustments, and any class special abilities that benefit from a high ability score of the selected type or modify the selected type.)

Past Experiences
At 5th level, the Jack of All Trades can call upon his ever growing list of experiences to make any check, albeit at an increased difficulty. The Jack of All Trades may make a Profession: Jack of All Trades check in place of any other skill check he could make, including skills that normally require ranks in the to use (Like tumble or any Knowledge skill)). However, this checkís DC is increased by 1 for every time 5 is divisible into the original DC. For example, The DC to make a 5 foot long jump, assuming a running start, is normally DC5, but when making the check in this way, it is increased to DC6 (because 5 is divisible by 5 once.) Similarly, a long jump of 30 feet with a running start is DC30 normally, but making the check in this way increases the DC to 36 (because 30 is divisible by 5 six times.) The Jack of all Trades receives a +1 competence bonus in this check for every 5 ranks he has in the skill he intends to use Past Experiences to replace. Example: A Jack of All Trades attempts to make a long jump. He already posses 10 ranks in the Jump skill, so his Profession: Jack of All Trades check receives a +2 competence bonus to make the check in the original skillís stead.

Favored Trade
At 6th, 12th, and 18th level, The Jack of All Trades choses a class that he has Dabbled in. He receives a +5 bonus to emulate class features from that class with his Class Emulation feature. He may not chose the same class more than once. This bonus stacks with the bonuses granted by Trades of The Day and Dabble.

Prestigious Dabbling
At 10th level, the Jack of All Trades gains the ability to Dabble in prestige classes. The Jack of All Trades must meet all the requirements to gain a prestige class naturally (Not from his Trades of the Day class feature) and must meet the alignment requirements, if any as a prestige class is highly specialized and a Jack of All Trades, by nature, is not.
Example: A Half-Elf Jack of All Trades who has dabbled in Sorcerer once and has gained the Point Blank Shot feat, Precise Shot feat, and the Weapon Focus (Longbow) feat either from his 3rd level feats or from Dabbling in Fighter classes to get them. He may use His 10th level Dabble ability to gain all the special abilities that the first level of the Arcane Archer prestige class has to offer. Note that he will also gain a +1 competence bonus to emulate abilities from that class as well.

Very Distant Relative
At 15th level, for the purposes of The Jack of All Trades' Trade of the Day, Class Emulation, and Prestigious Dabbling features, the Jack of All Trades now no longer needs to meet any alignment or race based requirements for Prestige classes and may dabble in them or emulate their features as he pleases so long as meets the all other requirements. The Jack of all Trades must still meet the standard requirements in all other respects.

Master of One
It's said that a Jack of All Trades is a Master of None. While this may be true, it doesn't stop the Jack of All Trades from trying it out every once in a while.
At Level 20, instead of selecting classes with his Trades of the Day ability, the Jack of All Trades may instead select one class which he has Dabbled in (not a prestige class). For the remainder of the day, the Jack of All Trades is treated as if he had 20 levels in the chosen class and gains all class abilities of the chosen class.
The Jack of All Trades retains his other Jack of All Trades class abilities as well as his standard hit dice. However, he gains the better class save progression for the class selected in addition to his own (if the progressions are not the same) as well as their BAB progression if it is better than the Jack of All Trades BAB.
The Jack of All Trades must still meet all the standard requirements of the class to use their special abilities so long as they are not alignment based.
Should the Jack of All Trades use this ability to select a spell casting class, he must have access to spells in some form or fashion. As with his Trades of the Day ability, he can prepare any spell that any member of his party knows even if the spell would not normally be on the selected spell casting class's list of spells and must use scrolls in the absence of a party spellcaster. He retains the spells that he learned from dabbling in the selected spell casting class however and can use those spells to fill higher level spell slots if need be.

So, let me know what you all think. (Also, i don't know how to make things bold or make fancy tables or anything so a quick pointer on that would be nice as well.)

I have, as well as the Savant. Both those classes were what inspired me to make this.

Ziegander

2014-02-02, 12:53 PM

I think this is a novel approach and really effective at doing all the things. Unfortunately, I think it's far too effective basically at all levels. Look at it this way, if I dabble as Wizard at every even level and Trade as Wizard using all of my daily uses, then for all intents and purposes I am a Wizard of my Jack of all Trades level + extra class features and versatility. Oh and with better hit points and better attack bonus. Am I reading something wrong?

It is too good at 1st and 20th level regardless. Being able to change all your class levels everyday is gamebreakingly abusive.

RLFHOG3

2014-02-02, 03:59 PM

Very true, but a jack of all trades needs to buy his own spellbook, unlike a Wizard who starts with his own. (Even though its only 15 gp.)
I suppose I never really thought about that to be honest.

Hmm, i suppose to fix the problem of it being broken at first level, I'd have to do away with Trades of the Day entirely, which, granted, would balance the class considerably. Maybe i should revise Master of One to give the Jack of All Trades only 10 effective levels in a class and probably only for a limited amount of time, not for a whole day.

Ziegander

2014-02-02, 07:53 PM

Very true, but a jack of all trades needs to buy his own spellbook, unlike a Wizard who starts with his own. (Even though its only 15 gp.)
I suppose I never really thought about that to be honest.

Hmm, i suppose to fix the problem of it being broken at first level, I'd have to do away with Trades of the Day entirely, which, granted, would balance the class considerably. Maybe i should revise Master of One to give the Jack of All Trades only 10 effective levels in a class and probably only for a limited amount of time, not for a whole day.

No, no don't do that, Trades of the Day is the coolest part. I would replace Dabble with something else. I'll give more suggestions later when I have more time.

EdroGrimshell

2014-02-06, 12:37 PM

What about just limiting Dabble and/or Trades of the Day so you can only devote so many to one individual class setup? Like 1/4 your class level or something along those lines. It makes sure you can't just stack them all into one class and be better than that class.